The Independent
·31 January 2025
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·31 January 2025
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Real or Bayern will be favourites against City - Guardiola
Manchester City will face Real Madrid in a blockbuster Champions League play-off tie, with Celtic taking on Bayern Munich for a place in the last-16.
Premier League champions City scraped through by beating Club Brugge and, as the 22nd seeds, knew they would face a true European heavyweight in the next round. Holders Madrid failed to finish in the top-eight as well, setting up a massive two-legged tie against City. Celtic, meanwhile, will be huge underdogs against German giants Bayern.
Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa are already through after claiming one of the top-eight spots in the inaugural league phase, but they will have to wait for next month’s last-16 draw for the knockout bracket to be fully set.
Liverpool finished top of the league standings and will face one of Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Monaco or Brest, while Arsenal know one of AC Milan, PSV Feyenoord or Juventus awaits them. Aston Villa, the eighth seeds, can prepare for one of Atalanta, Borussia Dortmund, Sporting or Club Brugge.
In the other play-offs, PSG play Brest in an all-French tie, Monaco meet Benfica, Club Brugge take on Atalanta, Sporting entertain Dortmund, Feyenoord face Milan and Juventus challenge PSV.
This morning’s draw in Nyon will determine the play-offs and you can follow all the updates in the live blog below. The Europa League draw
There will be an all-French clash in the Champions League play-offs with Brest facing giants Paris Saint-Germain.
Brest have been the surprise package of this season’s Champions League and will be the underdogs against French champions PSG.
Sporting’s tie against Dortmund also looks a good one on paper, while there’s a double Dutch-Italian crossover with PSV v Juventus and Feyenoord v Milan.
Atalanta, the Europa League winners, will be delighted to draw Club Brugge, who scraped through in 24th position.
Benfica (16th) and Monaco (17th) finished next to each other in the table and were level on points, so fittingly, they meet in the play-offs.
(Getty Images)